Silent night..

er.. quite ordinary night. Here anyway. The city over people are sitting around their tables choking on carp bones. Well by now they're probably opening their presents, post carp and potato salad. Depends on the family I guess. And hopefully people have been lucky to avoid to many bone accidents.

Here, it's a regular Tuesday eve. Well.. one of us didn't go to work today. Actually both of us (all 3 if you count Cooley) didn't go to work but in the case of one of us, that is me, (and Cooley if you're counting her) it's all too typical, but for one of us, the worker, the whole week is off, Christmas in the middle of the week really makes everyone.. well, take the whole week off.

So we're sitting here as usual on an evening, on the computer, watch a few shows, have dinner.. yell at the cat not to chew the Christmas tree and vaguely plan all our business tomorrow. Yes, we're doing it the traditional way, that sit he traditional north American and in fact Australian way of doing the pressies and main dinner thing on Christmas day, December 25th. We get up, whenever we get up. Probably have a breakfast, shower and stuff because we like to take dorky photos with the tree and want to look nice for it, and then open our, I guess pretty modest presents under our extremely modest tree, and then set to first cleaning this place up cos it's a total dump at the moment and get to cooking. In the evening we'll have our usual "orphans" dinner, with a few vegan dishes and that not even loosely based on any countries Christmas dinner as far as we know, lots of drinks and the best bad Christmas movies we could find. See traditional.

I used to do it the traditional way, back in Australia when I lived near my family. That is the traditional Czech way, of having Christmas dinner of, well something, sometimes a kind of fish (never carp) crumbed and friend, but always something that isn't fish cos I don't like fish and the traditional potato salad, and then open our presents, on a hot summer night, barely minutes after the sun goes down. See traditional.

All the years since I've left, most of which have been spent in this country, I've done the dinner and presents thing on Christmas day, that is 25th. I guess I like to be contrary like that.

Well it wasn't quite 20 years..

One can now again enjoy a nice whiskey or vodka or other spirit containing more than 20% alcohol here in the Czech republic, legally, provided it was not brewed/bottled in 2012. Oh did I happen to mention you couldn't.. well not unless it had been bought before or brought back to the country from wherever you happen to be..

Ok, it started when a couple of weeks ago there was some tainted alcohol being sold here. Apparently fake booze, laced with industrial cleaners or something horrific like that, in regular bottles, so you can probably guess it was pretty fucking poisonous, and some people died, and many got very sick. As you can imagine, this was quite a big deal. This was just before I left for Israel, and it was a big story while we were gone.

Just before we got back, prohibition was introduced. We returned to a city full of jazz and bobbed hair and rolling down stockings and ok, I exaggerate, but hard alcohol was not allowed to be sold.

Beer and wine's status stayed the same as it was, so life for us here changed remarkably little. Some spirits and liqueurs were still available, and bars got inventive and had cocktails with.. like other stuff. There were witty jokes on bar signs, offering non-alcoholic cocktails.. and prohibition parties with flappers on their signs, back in those temperately warm mid to late September of 2012 days...

Then today it finished. Any spirits made before the cutoff.. I guess any from 2011 can be sold and served again. That's still a lot of booze that will be gotten rid of, and it seems as if my first guess when I heard about this was right, it was a mostly  to put a freeze on selling alcohol so that all the poison shit could be gotten out of the system, and would not continue for very long. It's still not completely over I guess, and a lot of places have lost a lot of money over this.. but, one must be as safe as possible, one supposes. I mean without entirely giving up alcohol that is.

Out of town we go!

It's been ages since I've left the official parameters of this city. It might just be the last time I went somewhere.. which was Paris last year..

*tries to think if I've so much as been just outside Prague*

no... don't think so.. anyway, it's 6 months now, so it's about time.

This one is the good old fashioned, very typical Czech weekend at the cottage, or "chalupa" as we call it. Yes, I have one. I mean I don't but people I'm related to have, did I mention I have relatives in this country.. well I do, I just never visit them except for when my mother visits.. did I mention she's visiting? Yeah well she's not bothering to stop by Prague or anything.. why would she do that.. just having a daughter living here and everything, but she's gone straight to our relatives place in České Budějovice. And this weekend we're all going to their little house in a village just outside of there..

so, time again for us to walk around gawking at the chickens and geese and frogs and acting like kids who've never left the city in their life, to the amusement of everyone else. Should be nice. Plans to be overcast and a bit rainy, of course, but we'll make do.

20 Years On..

No, this is not about Berlin, the wall, my recent visit or whatnot. It's about here, the Czech Republic and the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. I thought I should mention it. It happened 20 years ago.. :)

Things have changed a lot, of course. I wasn't here in 89, or 92, or 95. I was here in 96 and people were already talking about how it was in the early 90s.. by the time I came back in 2000 it was already a completely different place and that was 9 years ago so.. yeah. If you read an article about it (one for international audiences as I'm assuming my readers* will be reading it in English) it will mention that this is a country in political turmoil. Every article about the Czech Republic says that. It's funny to read that because otherwise I forget there's anything resembling turmoil happening.. you really wouldn't know from living here ;).

20 years. I remember when it happened, I was in Australia and it was on the news, of course to our family it was a big deal. I remember it well as I was old enough. Old enough to remember it clearly, and it was 20 years ago. Make of that what you will. Yes, I am making it about myself.

There's stuff going on today, a re-enactment, some festivities. Might catch some, might photograph. Might listen to the music. Might drink. Ok scratch the word "might" from that last one.

*Yeah I know I'm being presumptuous here, but I like the sound of it.

Tell you what, I'll accept the magic beer fairy, and we'll leave it at that.

The Pope was in Brno today. That's in the not Prague part of the Czech Republic.. I was there a few weeks ago. He was in Prague yesterday, but didn't speak to the peons, just some politics.. wonder why.. hmmm..

Well anyway, he had an interesting message to the crowd.. "Don't exclude God" he told the worshiping 100,000+ strong crowd.. I mean I wasn't there but they say the crowd was about that and I'm just assuming...

And it's annoying. I mean I know that's what these religious leaders do, and that they're mostly talking to (directly anyway) those who are already faithful but fuck. No, I won't include a non-existent deity into my life who if it did in fact exist would most certainly make said life much much worse.. and you my dear, have and should have no say in it. I know for you god is real and good, but you don't speak for the far far majority of people in the world, and to those people your words are OF NO IMPORTANCE and you should.. ya know.. fucking realize it.

Anyway.. more stupidity from the Ratz includes:

"History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions"

Um, no. Sorry dear. History has demonstrated that people can do horrendous things for all sorts of reasons but by far the most has been because of religion. I do accept that a lot of the time the religion is a front for ethnic and land disputes, but... well what he said is just rubbish, is all.

Oh and I love this bit..

"The 82-year-old pontiff's three-day visit comes as Czechs prepare to mark 20 years since their 1989 Velvet Revolution shook off a regime that had ruthlessly persecuted the Roman Catholic Church."

Waaaaaaaaaaaahh, waahhh.. Please. The Catholic Church should know a bit or 2 about persecution.. and I really don't know a whole lot about the history of Catholics in this country, but there weren't any burnings or flailings or whatnot. Just sayin..

And in other Pope related news.. Yesterday in Prague he was attacked by a "large arachid" :)

Well, I "saw" him..

I did it... I went today to see Barack Obama make a speech at Hradčanské náměstí, here in Prague. I actually got up at 6.. well the alarm went off at 6 and we got up a got going at the time that we did, I had my camera around my neck, phone, wallet and foodie stuffs in the pocket, no bags as they weren't allowed... and for the same reason we didn't bring umbrellas, structures, laser pointer or dogs. Too bad.

We stood on the crowded tram all the way, got off the tram and rambled with the crowd down the hill to the square, where we stood with the crowd for about an hour, edging a few centimetres here and there, until we finally went through security and joined the crowd inside. We managed to find ourselves a spot squashed in the middle of the crowd where we couldn't really see the podium, and could barely see the screen but if you're tall enough, like Erik, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of something if you stand on your tippy toes and people's heads just happen to be out of your particular way at that point.

We milled around for an hour and a bit, taking photos of the crowd, of anti radar balloons and banners (they weren't allowed either by the way) one guy who climbed up a statue with one, but was curiously left alone. Being in such close proximity with people you get to overhear a lot, some of it funny, especially without context.. some examples:

"we need a periscope just like they have in submarines" (funny cos of the way it was said, in a dorky American guy voice.. which obvs does not come over in the written form.)
"I wish I was a sniper, they get to see him properly"

and others which I noted at the time and intended to remember but didn't.

After listening to some bluegrass band for an hour, Mr Obama showed up to stage at about 10:19, having been scheduled for 10:00. There was cheering, waving, people raising up taller with their cameras up in the air... lots of snapping going on.

He introduced his speech by saying he's come to appreciate Czech humour and food over the years from living in Chicago... so nice that he's actually heard of us, something I wasn't expecting :) ..that good a pretty big cheer.

After the intro which got a big cheer, he talked a little about history, said the name "Masaryk" with a pretty good accent, talked some about the connections between our nations, (there are actually a few) the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution etc. When he mentioned "And few would have imagined that the Czech Republic would become a free nation, a member of NATO, and a leader of a united Europe." there was a snicker from someone near us in the crowd.

He talked about NATO, nuclear weapons, climate change, North Korea's new shenanigans, Iran and the missile defence system, which.. I'm afraid to say he came across as being "pro" or at least sorta. He spoke about freedom, and terrorism but neither word was used more than a couple of times and in ways that were relevant to the subject. I thought the alliteration used when he listed cities when speaking of potential nuclear bombs ("Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague") a little cliched, but certainly a good speech. grandiloquent than most and a lot more relevant, meaningful, and generally listenable than any by a certain predecessor of his.

I tried to snap some shots but he was too far, too many people in my way and there was this thing in front of his face.. I have a couple of blurry, far off shots from when Erik lifted me up a bit but his face is obscured by it in every one that I have... it's bloody annoying. I did get to see him for real with my real eyes though. Looked very small but he was there. Didn't really pick out Michelle from the group the split second I was able to look at the podium, but I hear she wore a pretty dress. And kitten heels.

When the speech was over we milled forward a bit, as some people streamed out, we got forward a bit as he left the stage shaking hands and saying goodbye to everyone, but not enough people left and I'm afraid I didn't see any of it. So we left.

I must say I was very pleased to go to the beergarden afterwards, just to sit down. Standing, straining and edging no more than a few centimetres at a time is not good for your legs or back. And it was good to have beer.

Erik has more. And he got better photos.

Oh how fucking embarrassing..

You know, sometimes I'm quite happy that hardly anyone has heard of this country and pays no attention to what goes on here.. but this weekend the leader of the free world is visiting, and for a fleeting moment all eyes will be on us, just long enough to absorb an opinion resembling "oh those post Soviet Eastern Europe countries are so backward" before relegating us back to oblivion. I mean if "my" (soon to be ousted) leader knew how to conduct himself in formal surroundingss, we might get away with "oh, that's nice, one of those former Soviet Eastern European countries is in the EU and seems normal and stuff", before being forgotten about until the next important person visits.

But no.. after describing the US stimulus package as the way to hell, inspired by ACDC apparently :) it may not be such a pleasant meeting. I think they were going to go to a pub, but who wants to go to a pub with a dick like Topolanek.. seriously. He's (said dick) also pro the missile defence shield, which wins him no points with normal people.

Yes, the "soon to be ousted" bit has a lot to do with it.. And yes, it's embarrassing to realize that my country is a laughing stock and considered by many to be ill suited to the EU presidency. All I have to say is that living here, as long as you pay absolutely no attention to politics, which I usually don't, you wouldn't be able to tell the country is in turmoil. Really, the beer gardens just opened, everything is real cool.

So, yes. I do intend to go see him tomorrow, nice of you to ask. It's strange, if I'd met myself now a few years and told myself then that I'd be going to see a US president speak, (and it wasn't some kind of huge protest) I would have told myself "are you having a laugh? is she having a laugh?" but.. well I might as well, this will be a cool event and photo op.. and though it's in a place that's difficult to get to on a normal day by metro and tram, and more than half the roads around the place will be closed tomorrow and it's quite near the place I recently was thwarted from going straight to and ended up wandering around aimlessly for hours by some regular roadwork, even though it was a place I used to live near and know very well... I think it sounds like a good idea.

A bit more detail..

Unless anyone is still listening.

I went snowboarding yesterday, for the first time ever. I got up at 5am, got ready and our friend drove us up to the north of the country where there are mountains with a couple of other dudes that were going along to ski.

I took lots of photos on the way. I didn't take my camera with me to the slopes but Erik had his on him, which I manage to get out of his clutches and used more than he did, a fact that might not be so interesting, but is somewhat relevent when speaking of me.

So, he taught me a few moves, as he knows this snowboarding jazz a bit, having worked a season at a ski resort, but I couldn't grasp it. Actually I couldn't stand up on the fucking thing. After a while I managed to stay up for a second but fell on my ass as soon as I tried to move. I kept at it and managed to slide down the hill half getting up but falling back over immediately.

I had a rest while he went up onto the big slope, and I nicked the camera from him and took a bunch of photos, then we went to meet our friends at the lift at 10:00. They never showed up, so I went back up to the tiny beginner's slope, but an even flatter bit. Then I managed to get how to do it, and I kept improving and moving up the hill just slightly every time. After about an hour I mastered the tiny slope, and the very small but not as tiny slope.

Then we went home. The end.

No, then Erik went up to go down the big people's slope again, and I stayed with the cam to get some photos of the hotshots coming over jump, I succeeded a couple of times in getting a decent shots.

At 12 we met for lunch. Me and Erik anyway, we waited and waited at the cafe/bar/lodge thing at the bottom of the hill, and they didn't show up. He called the driver a couple of times but he had his phone off. So we waited. No one showed up but finally he got through to him, and told us he was back at the car, and the other dudes were waiting for us at the ski rental place.

So we trudged off, not really remembering where it was but knowing the general direction. We got held up by cars stuck in the snow but were there in reasonable time. They were gone, and the rental dude told us our "friends" had just left 2 minutes before.

Now we just had to find the car. This one was more difficult, we walked through town, across the bridge, back again then called again. We were told vaguely where the car was and then wandered around aimlessly some more before finding it. Of course, they whined at us for taking so long.

We drove back, stopping for lunch, where most of us had duck. It was pretty good.

That's about it.

I now pronounce you, respectable!

Czech gays may now have their civil unions recognised. Not exactly marriage, but close. The vote was passed yesterday, overturning a veto by President Vaclav Klaus.

He had argued the legislation amounted to excessive regulation by the state of people's private lives.

A bullshit argument if I ever heard one. Most likely he just doesn't like gays because he thinks they're yucky. Or "fuj" as you would say in Czech.

In a statement released after the vote, Mr Klaus said the result was not a personal defeat but rather "a defeat for all of us who believe that the family in our society is fundamental, unique, unrivalled".

Gays are "fuj" again. The only advice to people who are bothered by this is to say, "just don't think about it". You won't notice anything at all. The only people who it's going to make any bit of difference to are the people who will use it, and they are not opposed to it.

The BBC's Rob Cameron in Prague says Czech society is one of the most secular and sexually liberal in Europe.

True, and true in a way. The Czech Republic in some ways is known to be a little behind on issues like feminism, racism and gay rights, in some ways, in other ways no. Of course, that was then. Before Vladko.


Vladko Dobrodovsky (right) and boyfriend Robert. Vladko is the winner of last year's Vyvoleni, the Czech Republic's first reality show. Oh he flamed, he ranted,he argued, he cleaned, he cooked, he cut off his long black mane, he went off about every little thing and developed a crush on co star Michal, but people loved him.

If you want to thank/blame anyone for this turn of events, he's the guy to call.